Apparatus and Method for Trellis-Based Detection in a Communication System

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for trellis-based detection in a communication system including a processor and memory having computer program code configured to construct a trellis representing a transmitted signal formed from a plurality of symbols, each having a constellation size, transmitted by a number of transmit antennas, and form a log likelihood ratio at nodes of the trellis as a log-sum of a number of exponential terms corresponding to a hypothesized transmitted bit value of the plurality of symbols. The number of exponential terms is limited by a number of most likely paths of the trellis extending from each node of the trellis and the constellation size. The processor and memory including computer program code are further configured to form a list at each node of the trellis of a size limited to the number of the most likely paths of the trellis extending from each node of the trellis.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is directed, in general, to communication systemsand, in particular, to an apparatus, method and system for trellis-baseddetection in a communication system.

BACKGROUND

Long term evolution (“LTE”) of the Third Generation Partnership Project(“3GPP”), also referred to as 3GPP LTE, refers to research anddevelopment involving the 3GPP LTE Release 8 and beyond, which is thename generally used to describe an ongoing effort across the industryaimed at identifying technologies and capabilities that can improvesystems such as the universal mobile telecommunication system (“UMTS”).The notation “LTE-A” is generally used in the industry to refer tofurther advancements in LTE. The goals of this broadly based projectinclude improving communication efficiency, lowering costs, improvingservices, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and achieving betterintegration with other open standards.

The evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (“E-UTRAN”) in3GPP includes base stations providing user plane (including packet dataconvergence protocol/radio link control/media access control/physical(“PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY”) sublayers) and control plane (including a radioresource control (“RRC”) sublayer) protocol terminations towardswireless communication devices such as cellular telephones. A wirelesscommunication device or terminal is generally known as user equipment(also referred to as “UE”). A base station is an entity of acommunication network often referred to as a Node B or an NB.Particularly in the E-UTRAN, an “evolved” base station is referred to asan eNodeB or an eNB. For details about the overall architecture of theE-UTRAN, see 3GPP Technical Specification (“TS”) 36.300 v8.7.0(2008-12), which is incorporated herein by reference. For details of thecommunication or radio resource control management, see 3GPP TS 25.331v.9.1.0 (2009-12) and 3GPP TS 36.331 v.9.1.0 (2009-12), which areincorporated herein by reference.

As wireless radio communication systems such as cellular telephone,satellite, and microwave communication systems become widely deployedand continue to attract a growing number of users, there is a pressingneed to accommodate a large and variable amount of communication trafficwith a minimal amount of processing resources, particularly in a mobiletransceiver in wireless communication devices powered by a smallbattery. The increased quantity of data is a consequence of wirelesscommunication devices transmitting video information and surfing theInternet, as well as performing ordinary voice communications.

One bottleneck in such communication systems is the need to process alarge amount of data received at one end of a digital communicationchannel to detect a noisy signal transmitted substantiallysimultaneously by a plurality of transmit antennas, and which may bereceived substantially simultaneously by a plurality of receiveantennas. Such communication channels that employ multiple antennas ateither end are generally referred to as multi-input, multi-output(“MIMO”) communication channels.

Optimum soft MIMO wireless channel detection is conventionally based onLog-Maximum A Posteriori Probability (“Log-MAP”) detection, which is toocomputationally intensive to be implemented in a practical MIMO receiver(or transceiver), because the Log-MAP procedure requires calculating alog-sum of Q^(M)/2 exponential terms, wherein Q is the constellationsize (i.e., the number of possible symbols of a modulation alphabet of atransmitted signal), and M is the number of transmit antennas. Abrute-force implementation of an optimum Log-MAP procedure consumesenormous computing power, which makes it impractical to be employed inmultiple antenna systems with higher-order modulation schemes. Inpractice, the Log-MAP procedure is often approximated by the Max-Log-MAPprocedure to reduce computational complexity. The sub-optimalMax-Log-MAP approximation to the Log-MAP procedure, however, has asignificant performance loss compared to the optimal Log-MAP procedureand, thus, there remains a significant performance gap between thesub-optimum Max-Log-MAP approximation and the optimal Log-MAP procedure.Existing MIMO detection implementations are based on the sub-optimalMax-Log-MAP approximation, which limits their error performance.

Therefore there is a need to develop a reduced-complexity replacementfor the Log-MAP procedure for detection in a high-performancecommunication device that avoids the deficiencies of currentcommunication systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

These and other problems are generally solved or circumvented, andtechnical advantages are generally achieved, by embodiments of thepresent invention, which include an apparatus, method and system fortrellis-based detection in a communication system. In one embodiment, anapparatus includes a processor and memory including computer programcode. The memory and the computer program code are configured to, withthe processor, cause the apparatus to construct a trellis representing atransmitted signal formed from a plurality of symbols transmitted by anumber of transmit antennas, wherein each symbol has a constellationsize. The trellis is formed of columns representing the number oftransmit antennas and rows representing values of the plurality ofsymbols with nodes at intersections thereof. The memory and the computerprogram code are further configured to, with the processor, cause theapparatus to form a log likelihood ratio at the nodes of the trellis asa log-sum of a number of exponential terms corresponding to ahypothesized transmitted bit value of 0 or 1 of the plurality ofsymbols. The number of exponential terms is limited by a function of anumber of most likely paths of the trellis extending from each node ofthe trellis and the constellation size. The memory and the computerprogram code are further configured to, with the processor, cause theapparatus to form a list at each node of the trellis of a size limitedto the number of the most likely paths of the trellis extending fromeach node of the trellis.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present invention in order that the detaileddescription of the invention that follows may be better understood.Additional features and advantages of the invention will be describedhereinafter, which form the subject of the claims of the invention. Itshould be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conceptionand specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis formodifying or designing other structures or processes for carrying outthe same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realizedby those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do notdepart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in theappended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the invention, and the advantagesthereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate system level diagrams of embodiments ofcommunication systems including a base station and wirelesscommunication devices that provide an environment for application of theprinciples of the present invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate system level diagrams of embodiments ofcommunication systems including wireless communication systems thatprovide an environment for application of the principles of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a system level diagram of an embodiment of acommunication element of a communication system for application of theprinciples of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of an embodiment of a trellis constructedaccording to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram demonstrating an embodiment of a pathreduction procedure constructed according to the principles of thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a diagram of an embodiment of a trellis following apath reduction procedure constructed according to the principles of thepresent invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram demonstrating an embodiment of a pathextension procedure constructed according to the principles of thepresent invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a path extension example where L=2 shortest pathsare found for a node, constructed according to the principles of theinvention;

FIG. 11 illustrates a graphical representation demonstrating anexemplary performance and the accompanying advantages of a trellis-baseddetection procedure according to the principles of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12, illustrated is a diagram of an embodiment of a pipelinedsystolic array architecture for a trellis-based detection procedureaccording to the principles of the present invention; and

FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a trellis-baseddetection procedure according to the principles of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The making and using of the presently preferred embodiments arediscussed in detail below. It should be appreciated, however, that thepresent invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that canbe embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specificembodiments discussed are merely illustrative of specific ways to makeand use the invention, and do not limit the scope of the invention. Inview of the foregoing, the present invention will be described withrespect to exemplary embodiments in a specific context of an apparatus,method and system for trellis-based detection in a communication system.The apparatus, method and system are applicable, without limitation, toany communication system including existing and future 3GPP technologiessuch as UMTS, LTE and its future variants such as 4th generation (“4G”)communication systems.

Turning now to FIG. 1, illustrated is a system level diagram of anembodiment of a communication system including a base station 115 andwireless communication devices (e.g., user equipment) 135, 140, 145 thatprovides an environment for application of the principles of the presentinvention. The base station 115 is coupled to a public switchedtelephone network (not shown). The base station 115 is configured with aplurality of antennas to transmit and receive signals in a plurality ofsectors including a first sector 120, a second sector 125, and a thirdsector 130, each of which typically spans 120 degrees. The three sectorsor more than three sectors are configured per frequency, and one basestation 115 can support more than one frequency. Although FIG. 1illustrates one wireless communication device (e.g., wirelesscommunication device 140) in each sector (e.g. the first sector 120), asector (e.g. the first sector 120) may generally contain a plurality ofwireless communication devices. In an alternative embodiment, a basestation 115 may be formed with only one sector (e.g. the first sector120), and multiple base stations may be constructed to transmitaccording to co-operative multi-input/multi-output (“C-MIMO”) operation,etc.

The sectors (e.g. the first sector 120) are formed by focusing andphasing radiated signals from the base station antennas, and separateantennas may be employed per sector (e.g. the first sector 120). Theplurality of sectors 120, 125, 130 increases the number of subscriberstations (e.g., the wireless communication devices 135, 140, 145) thatcan simultaneously communicate with the base station 115 without theneed to increase the utilized bandwidth by reduction of interferencethat results from focusing and phasing base station antennas. While thewireless communication devices 135, 140, 145 are part of a primarycommunication system, the wireless communication devices 135, 140, 145and other devices such as machines (not shown) may be a part of asecondary communication system to participate in, without limitation,D2D and machine-to-machine communications or other communications.Additionally, the wireless communication devices 135, 140, 145 may formcommunication nodes along with other devices in the communicationsystem.

Turning now to FIG. 2, illustrated is a system level diagram of anembodiment of a communication system including a base station 210 andwireless communication devices (e.g., user equipment) 260, 270 thatprovides an environment for application of the principles of the presentinvention. The communication system includes the base station 210coupled by communication path or link 220 (e.g., by a fiber-opticcommunication path) to a core telecommunications network such as publicswitched telephone network (“PSTN”) 230. The base station 210 is coupledby wireless communication paths or links 240, 250 to the wirelesscommunication devices 260, 270, respectively, that lie within itscellular area 290.

In operation of the communication system illustrated in FIG. 2, the basestation 210 communicates with each wireless communication device 260,270 through control and data communication resources allocated by thebase station 210 over the communication paths 240, 250, respectively.The control and data communication resources may include frequency andtime-slot communication resources in frequency division duplex (“FDD”)and/or time division duplex (“TDD”) communication modes. While thewireless communication devices 260, 270 are part of a primarycommunication system, the wireless communication devices 260, 270 andother devices such as machines (not shown) may be a part of a secondarycommunication system to participate in, without limitation,device-to-device and machine-to-machine communications or othercommunications. Additionally, the wireless communication devices 260,270 may form communication nodes along with other devices in thecommunication system.

Turning now to FIG. 3, illustrated is a system level diagram of anembodiment of a communication system including a wireless communicationsystem that provides an environment for the application of theprinciples of the present invention. The wireless communication systemmay be configured to provide evolved UMTS terrestrial radio accessnetwork (“E-UTRAN”) universal mobile telecommunications services. Amobile management entity/system architecture evolution gateway (“MME/SAEGW,” one of which is designated 310) provides control functionality foran E-UTRAN node B (designated “eNB,” an “evolved node B,” also referredto as a “base station,” one of which is designated 320) via an S1communication link (ones of which are designated “S1 link”). The basestations 320 communicate via X2 communication links (ones of which aredesignated “X2 link”). The various communication links are typicallyfiber, microwave, or other high-frequency communication paths such ascoaxial links, or combinations thereof.

The base stations 320 communicate with wireless communication devicessuch as user equipment (“UE,” ones of which are designated 330), whichis typically a mobile transceiver carried by a user. Thus, thecommunication links (designated “Uu” communication links, ones of whichare designated “Uu link”) coupling the base stations 320 to the userequipment 330 are air links employing a wireless communication signalsuch as, for example, an orthogonal frequency division multiplex(“OFDM”) signal. While the user equipment 330 are part of a primarycommunication system, the user equipment 330 and other devices such asmachines (not shown) may be a part of a secondary communication systemto participate in, without limitation, D2D and machine-to-machinecommunications or other communications. Additionally, the user equipment330 may form a communication node along with other devices in thecommunication system.

Turning now to FIG. 4, illustrated is a system level diagram of anembodiment of a communication system including a wireless communicationsystem that provides an environment for the application of theprinciples of the present invention. The wireless communication systemprovides an E-UTRAN architecture including base stations (one of whichis designated 410) providing E-UTRAN user plane (packet data convergenceprotocol/radio link control/media access control/physical) and controlplane (radio resource control) protocol terminations towards wirelesscommunication devices such as user equipment 420 and other devices suchas machines 425 (e.g., an appliance, television, meter, etc.). The basestations 410 are interconnected with X2 interfaces or communicationlinks (designated “X2”) and are connected to the wireless communicationdevices such as user equipment 420 and other devices such as machines425 via Uu interfaces or communication links (designated “Uu”). The basestations 410 are also connected by S1 interfaces or communication links(designated “S1”) to an evolved packet core (“EPC”) including a mobilemanagement entity/system architecture evolution gateway (“MME/SAE GW,”one of which is designated 430). The S1 interface supports a multipleentity relationship between the mobile management entity/systemarchitecture evolution gateway 430 and the base stations 410. Forapplications supporting inter-public land mobile handover, inter-eNBactive mode mobility is supported by the mobile management entity/systemarchitecture evolution gateway 430 relocation via the S1 interface.

The base stations 410 may host functions such as radio resourcemanagement. For instance, the base stations 410 may perform functionssuch as Internet protocol (“IP”) header compression and encryption ofuser data streams, ciphering of user data streams, radio bearer control,radio admission control, connection mobility control, dynamic allocationof communication resources to user equipment in both the uplink and thedownlink, selection of a mobility management entity at the userequipment attachment, routing of user plane data towards the user planeentity, scheduling and transmission of paging messages (originated fromthe mobility management entity), scheduling and transmission ofbroadcast information (originated from the mobility management entity oroperations and maintenance), and measurement and reporting configurationfor mobility and scheduling. The mobile management entity/systemarchitecture evolution gateway 430 may host functions such asdistribution of paging messages to the base stations 410, securitycontrol, termination of user plane packets for paging reasons, switchingof user plane for support of the user equipment mobility, idle statemobility control, and system architecture evolution bearer control. Theuser equipment 420 and machines 425 receive an allocation of a group ofinformation blocks from the base stations 410.

Additionally, the ones of the base stations 410 are coupled to a homebase station 440 (a device), which is coupled to devices such as userequipment 450 and/or machines (not shown) for a secondary communicationsystem. The base station 410 can allocate secondary communication systemresources directly to the user equipment 450 and machines, or to thehome base station 440 for communications (e.g., local or D2Dcommunications) within the secondary communication system. The secondarycommunication resources can overlap with communication resourcesemployed by the base station 410 to communicate with the user equipment420 within its serving area. For a better understanding of home basestations (designated “HeNB”), see 3 GPP TS 32.781 v.9.1.0 (2010-03),which is incorporated herein by reference. While the user equipment 420and machines 425 are part of a primary communication system, the userequipment 420, machines 425 and home base station 440 (communicatingwith other user equipment 450 and machines (not shown)) may be a part ofa secondary communication system to participate in, without limitation,D2D and machine-to-machine communications or other communications.Additionally, the user equipment 420 and machines 425 may formcommunication nodes along with other devices in the communicationsystem.

Turning now to FIG. 5, illustrated is a system level diagram of anembodiment of a communication element 510 of a communication system forapplication of the principles of the present invention. Thecommunication element or device 510 may represent, without limitation, abase station, a wireless communication device (e.g., a subscriberstation, terminal, mobile station, user equipment, machine), a networkcontrol element, a communication node, or the like. When thecommunication element or device 510 represents a communication node suchas a user equipment, the user equipment may be configured to communicatewith another communication node such as another user equipment employingone or more base stations as intermediaries in the communication path(referred to as cellular communications). The user equipment may also beconfigured to communicate directly with another user equipment withoutdirect intervention of the base station in the communication path. Thecommunication element 510 includes, at least, a processor 520, memory550 that stores programs and data of a temporary or more permanentnature, a plurality of antennas 560, and a radio frequency transceiver570 coupled to the antennas 560 and the processor 520 for bidirectionalwireless communications. The communication element 510 may providepoint-to-point and/or point-to-multipoint communication services.

The communication element 510, such as a base station in a cellularcommunication system or network, may be coupled to a communicationnetwork element, such as a network control element 580 of a publicswitched telecommunication network (“PSTN”). The network control element580 may, in turn, be formed with a processor, memory, and otherelectronic elements (not shown). The network control element 580generally provides access to a telecommunication network such as a PSTN.Access may be provided using fiber optic, coaxial, twisted pair,microwave communications, or similar link coupled to an appropriatelink-terminating element. A communication element 510 formed as awireless communication device is generally a self-contained deviceintended to be carried by an end user.

The processor 520 in the communication element 510, which may beimplemented with one or a plurality of processing devices, performsfunctions associated with its operation including, without limitation,precoding of antenna gain/phase parameters (precoder 521), encoding anddecoding (encoder/decoder 523) of individual bits forming acommunication message in accordance with a detector, formatting ofinformation, and overall control (controller 525) of the communicationelement, including processes related to management of communicationresources (resource manager 528). Exemplary functions related tomanagement of communication resources include, without limitation,hardware installation, traffic management, performance data analysis,tracking of end users and equipment, configuration management, end useradministration, management of wireless communication devices, managementof tariffs, subscriptions, security, billing and the like. For instance,in accordance with the memory 550, the resource manager 528 isconfigured to allocate primary and second communication resources (e.g.,time and frequency communication resources) for transmission of voicecommunications and data to/from the communication element 510 and toformat messages including the communication resources therefor in aprimary and secondary communication system. Additionally, the resourcemanager 528 may manage interference between communication nodes in theprimary and secondary communication system.

The execution of all or portions of particular functions or processesrelated to management of communication resources may be performed inequipment separate from and/or coupled to the communication element 510,with the results of such functions or processes communicated forexecution to the communication element 510. The processor 520 of thecommunication element 510 may be of any type suitable to the localapplication environment, and may include one or more of general-purposecomputers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signalprocessors (“DSPs”), field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”),application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), and processors basedon a multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

The transceiver 570 of the communication element 510 modulatesinformation on to a carrier waveform for transmission by thecommunication element 510 via the antennas 560 to another communicationelement. The transceiver 570 demodulates information received via theantennas 560 for further processing by other communication elements. Thetransceiver 570 is capable of supporting duplex operation for thecommunication element 510.

The memory 550 of the communication element 510, as introduced above,may be one or more memories and of any type suitable to the localapplication environment, and may be implemented using any suitablevolatile or nonvolatile data storage technology such as asemiconductor-based memory device, a magnetic memory device and system,an optical memory device and system, fixed memory, and removable memory.The programs stored in the memory 550 may include program instructionsor computer program code that, when executed by an associated processor,enable the communication element 510 to perform tasks as describedherein. Of course, the memory 550 may form a data buffer for datatransmitted to and from the communication element 510. Exemplaryembodiments of the system, subsystems, and modules as described hereinmay be implemented, at least in part, by computer software executable byprocessors of, for instance, the wireless communication device and thebase station, or by hardware, or by combinations thereof. As will becomemore apparent, systems, subsystems and modules may be embodied in thecommunication element 510 as illustrated and described herein.

To reduce the exponential process complexity of optimal Log-MAPdetectors, some sub-optimal soft sphere and soft K-best Max-Log-MAPdetection processes and their very large scale integration (“VLSI”)architectures have been developed by various researchers. Thesesub-optimal Max-Log-MAP processes can be categorized as eitherdepth-first soft sphere or breadth-first soft K-best tree-searchprocedures. The depth-first soft sphere procedure has non-deterministiccomplexity and variable throughput that make it sensitive tounpredictable channel conditions. Moreover, the depth-first soft sphereprocedure with a small candidate list size suffers significantperformance degradations due to inaccuracy and especially to infinitelog-likelihood ratios (“LLRs”). On the other hand, the breadth-firstsoft K-best procedure has advantages of fixed complexity and fixedthroughput that makes it friendly to a hardware implementation. However,when K (which represents number of candidates selected at each level ofa tree-based search procedure) is large, the computational complexity ofthe K-best procedure increases dramatically because a large number ofpaths have to be extended and sorted. For example, as described by H.Kim, et al. in a reference entitled “Design Tradeoffs and HardwareArchitecture for Real-Time Iterative MIMO Detection Using SphereDecoding and LDPC Coding,” IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communication,26:1003-1014, August 2008, K=512 is suggested for a 4×4 constellation ofsize and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (“QAM”) MIMO communicationsystem. Sorting is often the bottleneck in K-best detection, whichlimits the communication system throughput performance.

To reduce the exponential process complexity of the computationallyintensive Log-MAP procedure, a sub-optimal Max-Log-MAP procedure isoften used to approximate the optimal Log-MAP procedure. The maincomplexity of the Max-Log-MAP procedure is searching for candidates. Avariety of Max-Log-MAP approximations have been investigated byresearchers, such as the soft sphere detection procedure as described byB. Hochwald, et al., in a reference entitle Achieving Near-Capacity on aMultiple-Antenna Channel,” IEEE Trans. Commun., 51:389-399, March 2003,by D. Garrett, et al. in a reference entitled “Silicon Complexity forMaximum Likelihood MIMO Detection Using Spherical Decoding,” IEEE J.Solid-State Circuit, 39:1544-1552, September 2004, and by C. Studer, etal. in a reference entitled “Soft-Output Sphere Decoding: Algorithms andVLSI Implementation,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,Vol. 26, pp. 290-300, February 2008. Further Max-Log-MAP approximationshave been investigated by researchers based on a soft K-best detectionprocedure as described by Z. Guo, et al., in a reference entitled“Algorithm and Implementation of the K-Best Sphere Decoding for MIMOdetection,” IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communications, 24:491-503, March2006. The aforementioned references are herein incorporated herein byreference. Although soft sphere or soft K-best procedures caneffectively reduce the searching complexity of the Max-Log-MAPprocedure, they still suffer from significant error performancedegradation due to sub-optimal Max-Log-MAP approximation.

A soft-output multi-input, multi-output detector and detection procedureis introduced to overcome this limitation that uses a process referredto herein as the n-Term Log-Maximum A Posteriori Probability (“Log-MAP”)detector or procedure. This procedure advantageously achievesnear-optimum MIMO detection of a noisy digital signal with reducedcomputational complexity. A trellis-based search method is used toimplement the n-Term Log-MAP procedure. The n-Term Log-MAP procedure isemployable with a communication device in LTE and WiMAX communicationsystems as well as any other next generation standards (e.g.,International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (“IMT Advanced”)).Thus, the apparatus, system and method to implement thereduced-complexity n-Term Log-MAP procedure can be applied to acommunication device in a wide variety of communications systems in bothuplink and downlink scenarios, and is especially suitable for low-power,high-throughput wireless communication applications such as cellularcommunication arrangements wherein an end user carries user equipmentsuch as a small portable battery-powered device.

In the n-Term Log-MAP procedure, a reduced number “n” of exponentialterms is used to approximate the original Log-MAP procedure. The n-TermLog-MAP procedure significantly outperforms the Max-Log-MAP procedurewhile retaining low implementation complexity. A trellis-based searchmethod is used to find the exponential terms to implement the n-TermLog-MAP procedure. A trellis-based search method is described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/475,755 entitled “Methods and Apparatusesfor MIMO Detection,” by Lilleberg, et al., filed Jun. 1, 2009, which isincorporated herein by reference. The trellis-based search method isextended as described herein for the n-Term Log-MAP procedure.

The search space of the MIMO signals is represented with a compacttrellis diagram. The trellis has M stages corresponding to a number oftransmit antennas, and each stage contains Q different nodescorresponding to the Q symbols of a complex constellation of thetransmitted signal. In other words, the trellis is formed of columnsrepresenting the number of transmit antennas and rows representingvalues of a plurality of symbols with nodes at intersections thereof.Each trellis node is physically mapped to a transmit symbol that belongsto a known modulation alphabet of the Q constellation symbols. Thus, anypath through the trellis represents a possible vector “s” of transmittedsymbols. In the trellis-based search method, the searching operation isevenly spread among the trellis nodes, wherein each node keeps a list ofL (e.g., 1<=L<=Q) most likely paths from all its incoming paths. Thenumber L of most likely paths may refer to the paths with the shortestdistance (or minimum Euclidean distance) or lowest path weight.Preferably, the number L of most likely paths is less than or equal tothe constellation size Q. A constellation size Q refers to Q symbolswithin the constellation, which results in Q nodes in the trellis ateach stage. Altogether Q×L candidates in each stage k of the M stages ofthe trellis can be used to compute the log-likelihood ratios (“LLRs”)for data bits transmitted by an antenna k using the n-Term Log-MAPprocedure, wherein n=(Q×L)/2. As described herein, the number L refersto the number of incoming paths to a node in accordance with a pathreduction procedure and number of outgoing paths from a node inaccordance with a path extension procedure. In general, the number Lrefers to the number of surviving paths to or from a trellis node.

The number L can be larger than the constellation size Q. The maximumtheoretical value of the number L is Q^(k), wherein k=1, 2 . . . N forthe first stage, second stage, etc., of the trellis. Practically,however, the number L should not be bigger than the constellation sizeQ. The n-Term Log-MAP procedure is an approximation procedure. Thesmaller number L helps to reduce its complexity. If a maximum possiblevalue is used for the number L, then the n-Term Log-MAP procedurebecomes an exhaustive search. Given a modulation alphabet ofconstellation size Q, the number L determines the decoding performance:A larger size for the number L leads to better error performance. Forexample, even with a small value for the number L (such as L=4 forQ=16), the n-Term Log-MAP procedure can achieve near-optimum decodingperformance.

The reduced-complexity n-Term Log-MAP procedure introduced hereinemploys n=(Q×L)/2 exponential terms to approximate the original Log-MAPprocedure, wherein n is much less than Q^(M). For example, the case Q=4,L=2, and M=4 results in n=4 and Q^(M)=256, illustrating a substantialreduction by a factor of 32 in computational complexity compared toconventional systems. A trellis-based search method is used to find the2n mostly likely received candidate symbols for each antenna. The searchoperation is evenly spread among the nodes in each trellis stage, whichnot only limits the number of candidate symbols, but also reduces theoverall sorting cost. By spreading the operation among the nodes, theamount of computation to perform the search is distributed throughoutthe trellis. The computational complexity of the procedure grows onlylinearly with the number of antennas. The n-Term Log-MAP procedure hassignificant error performance advantage over the traditional soft K-bestand soft sphere Max-Log-MAP procedures. Further, the procedure asintroduced herein has a very low sorting cost and is suitable for aparallel digital implementation.

In order to address the challenge of reducing the computationalintensity of a brute-force implementation of the Log-MAP procedure, then-Term Log-MAP procedure uses the number n most likely candidate symbols(or bit values thereof) to approximate the original Log-MAP procedure. Atrellis-based search method is modified as introduced herein toimplement the n-Term Log-MAP procedure. In the trellis-based searchmethod, a distributed search process with scalable list size L isapplied to prune unlikely candidates and thereby significantly reduceoverall detection cost.

The n-Term Log-MAP procedure introduced herein can be summarized asfollows: A log-sum of n exponential terms is implemented withsubstantially reduced computational complexity to approximate theoptimum Log-MAP procedure, which ordinarily requires calculating thelog-sum of Q^(M)/2 exponential terms. A trellis-based search method isused to find the most likely candidates to implement the n-Term Log-MAPprocedure.

The optimal MAP detection procedure computes the log-likelihood ratio(“LLR”) value as illustrated below by equation (1) for the a posterioriprobability (“APP”) of each coded bit x_(k,b), wherein the indices k andb are the antenna index and the binary-bit index, respectively:

$\begin{matrix}{{{LLR}\left( x_{k,b} \right)} = {{\log \frac{\Pr \left\lbrack {x_{k,b} = {0y}} \right\rbrack}{\Pr \left\lbrack {x_{k,b} = {1y}} \right\rbrack}} = {\log \frac{\sum\limits_{{s:x_{k,b}} = 0}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {Hs}}}^{2}} \right)}}{\sum\limits_{{s:x_{k,b}} = 1}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {Hs}}}^{2}} \right)}}}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

In equation (1) above, the LLR of each coded bit x_(k,b) is calculatedas the logarithm of the ratio of the probability that the coded bitx_(k,b) is equal to 0 given a received signal y, to the probability thatthe coded bit x_(k,b) is equal to 1 given the received signal y. Thedouble vertical lines surrounding a vector represent a Euclideanmagnitude of the vector. The parameter σ² represents the variance ofchannel noise at the receiver (or transceiver) of the communicationdevice. A transmitted signal may include data that describes itssignal-to-noise ratio. The channel matrix H is the complex M×N channelmatrix, wherein each element h_(i,j) is an independent zero meancircularly symmetric complex Gaussian random variable with unitvariance. The symbol vector s represents the complex transmittedconstellation signal from the M transmit antennas associated with thecoded bits x_(k,b). This computation illustrated by equation (1)produces the result that the coded bit x_(k,b) is 0 if the log of theLLR ratio is positive and, conversely, the coded bit x_(k,b) is 1 if thelog of the LLR ratio is negative. Alternatively, if the logarithm of theprobability ratio is not taken, the coded bit x_(k,b) is 0 if theprobability ratio is greater than one and, conversely, the coded bitx_(k,b) is 1 if the probability ratio is less than one.

The LLR computation in equation (1) includes calculating two log-sums ofQ^(M)/2 exponential terms, wherein Q is the constellation size and M isthe number of transmit antennas. The brute-force implementation ofequation (1) is too complex to be implemented in a practicalcommunication device such as a portable battery-powered communicationdevice. As introduced herein, a reduced number “n” of exponential termsis used to approximate the optimal Log-MAP procedure as set forth belowby equation (2).

$\begin{matrix}{{{{LLR}\left( x_{k,b} \right)} \approx {{\log {\sum\limits_{i = {{0:x_{k,b}} = 0}}^{n - 1}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {Hs}}}^{2}} \right)}}} - {\log {\sum\limits_{i = {{0:x_{k,b}} = 1}}^{n - 1}{\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {Hs}}}^{2}} \right)}}}}},} & (2)\end{matrix}$

wherein n is a predefined number that is preferably less than Q^(M)/2.The detection problem now becomes an n-Term minimum Euclidean distancefinding problem conditioned on the bits x_(k,b)=0 and x_(k,b)=1. The nterms in the equation above are selected for the computation asdescribed herein.

A low-complexity trellis-based search method is employed to find nminimum Euclidean distances. A conventional unitary-upper triangularmatrix decomposition (“QR decomposition”) is first performed on thecomplex channel matrix H by representing the channel matrix H as theproduct of two matrices Q×R, where the matrix Q is a unitary matrixwhose columns are orthogonal unit vectors, and the matrix R is an uppertriangular matrix. It should be understood that the Q referred to in theQR decomposition is different than the Q with respect to theconstellation size. Since the performance of the communication channelis generally slowly varying, the QR decomposition of the channel matrixH need only be performed infrequently. Then the Euclidean distance orpath weight d(s) is calculated as set forth below by equation (3).

$\begin{matrix}{{{d(s)} = {{{y - {Hs}}}^{2} = {{{y^{\prime} - {Rs}}}^{2} = {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{M - 1}\; {{\left( y^{\prime} \right)_{k} - ({Rs})_{k}}}^{2}}}}},} & (3)\end{matrix}$

wherein y′=Q^(H)y, (.)k denotes the k-th element of a vector, and theexponent H in the equation for y′ in terms of the vector y denotes theHermetian operator of conjugation and transposition (which should not beconfused with the channel matrix H).

Calculating the Euclidean distance d(s) with the upper triangular matrixR enables the trellis-based search method to be started at one side ofthe trellis (i.e., at one antenna), which is effectively decoupledthereby from the responses of the other antennas. In an advantageousembodiment, the antenna with the strongest signal response isselectively placed at the side of the trellis at which the trellissearch method is started.

The Euclidean distance d(s) is advantageously computed backwardlyrecursively as d_(k)=d_(k+1)+e_(k) wherein the metric increment e_(k) isdefined by equation (4) as set forth below.

$\begin{matrix}{e_{k} = {{y_{k}^{\prime} - {\sum\limits_{j = k}^{M - 1}{R_{k,j}s_{j}}}}}^{2}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

Turning now to FIG. 6, illustrated is a diagram of an embodiment of atrellis constructed according to the principles of the presentinvention. The exemplary trellis represents a 4×4 (four transmitantennas employing a constellation size including four symbols)quadrature phase-shift keyed (“QPSK”) system to visualize thecalculation of the Euclidean distance d(s). In the trellis, the fournodes are ordered into M=4 stages labeled stage 0, stage 1, stage 2, andstage 3. The assignment of antennas to particular stages can bearbitrary, but in an advantageous embodiment, the antenna with bestsignal-to-noise characteristic is assigned to the leftmost stage. Thetrellis starts with stage 3=M−1 and ends with stage 0, where each stagek, 0≦k≦M−1, corresponds to a transmit antenna k. In each stage/level,there are Q=4 different nodes representing the four possible transmittedsymbols in the constellation. Altogether, there are 4⁴=256 paths throughthis 4×4 trellis. Below the trellis are illustrated the points of theQPSK constellations, with x's illustrating the locations of these pointsin the complex plane. Each trellis node represents in essence ahypothesis for the QPSK symbol transmitted by the particular antenna.Thus, each node maps to a constellation point (i.e., a complex QPSKsymbol, or more generally, a complex QAM symbol) that belongs to a knownalphabet of Q symbols. Each transmitted vector is a particular paththrough the trellis diagram.

In the trellis representation, the total number of the nodes growslinearly with the number of transmit antennas when using the treestructure, instead of growing exponentially. The trellis is fullyconnected which results in Q^(M) different paths through the trellis(i.e., any path through the trellis is a possible path). The nodes instage k are denoted as v_(k)(q) (0≦q≦Q−1). The edge between nodesv_(k+1)(q′) and v_(k)(q) has a edge weight of e_(k)(q^((k))), whereinq^((k)) is the partial symbol vector. A weight is assigned to each edgebetween nodes in successive stages in the trellis so that the problem ofMIMO detection is transformed into a minimum-weight trellis searchproblem. Each path through the trellis corresponds to a transmittedsymbol vector s. In the trellis diagram, a path weight d is the sum ofthe edge weights e between nodes along the particular path. To find thenumber n=(Q×L)/2 shortest paths for each hypothesis of the coded bitx_(k,b) (i.e., to find the number n shortest paths for the bit x_(k,b)=1and x_(k,b)=0), a trellis search method is employed that is summarizedbelow. In order to reduce the search space, a path reduction process isemployed to prune unlikely paths in the trellis.

Turning now to FIG. 7, illustrated is a flow diagram demonstrating anembodiment of a path reduction procedure constructed according to theprinciples of the present invention. The path reduction procedure isconfigured to prune paths for each trellis node to a smaller number ofsurviving paths. In FIG. 7, each trellis node, such as trellis node 710,is advantageously illustrated with a dedicated node process that mayoperate on a dedicated processor or subprocess on a single processor formany nodes. Of course, a smaller number of processes can operatecollectively on the trellis nodes. The stages (columns) of the trellisare labeled in descending order, starting from stage M−1 at the left andending with stage 0. Note that FIG. 7 illustrates only three successivestages, k+1, k, and k−1 among the M stages. Each node process receivesQ×L=4×2=8 incoming path candidates from nodes in the previous stage ofthe trellis and, then, the L=2 paths (the ones with the least number ofcumulative path weights) are selected from these Q×L candidates. Next,the number L survivors are fully extended to the right so that each nodewill have the best Q×L outgoing paths forwarded to the next stage of thetrellis. This process repeats until the end of the trellis.

Turning now to FIG. 8, illustrated is a diagram of an embodiment of atrellis following a path reduction procedure constructed according tothe principles of the present invention. The illustrated embodimentdemonstrates a 4×4 QPSK trellis after applying the path reductionprocedure, wherein each node keeps only L=2 best incoming paths, theones with the least cumulative path weights. In FIG. 8, the stages ofthe trellis are shown in the columns and the nodes are shown as numberedcircles corresponding to constellation symbols. Note that symbol 3 atantenna stage 3 shows no outgoing paths because these paths were droppedas incoming paths by respective trellis symbol nodes at a prior antennastage.

The path reduction procedure can effectively prune the trellis bykeeping only the number L of best incoming paths at each trellis node.As a result, each trellis node in the last stage of the trellis has thenumber L shortest paths through the trellis. However, other than thetrellis nodes in the last stage, the procedure cannot guarantee thatevery trellis node will have the number L shortest paths through thetrellis. For example, nodes 1 and 3 at stage 2 of the trellis asillustrated in FIG. 8 have only uncompleted paths. These paths may beadded as path extensions as described later hereinbelow.

An objective of the trellis search method is to find the number L ofshortest paths for every node in the trellis. To achieve this goal, apath extension procedure is employed after the path reduction procedureto extend those uncompleted paths. The path extension procedure is usedto fill in the missing paths for each trellis node q at stage k (k>0).The goal is to extend the uncompleted paths so that each node will havethe number L of shortest paths through the trellis. The path extensionis performed stage by stage, and node by node.

Turning now to FIG. 9, illustrated is a flow diagram demonstrating anembodiment of a path extension procedure constructed according to theprinciples of the present invention. The path extension procedure isbeing demonstrated with respect to a node q in a stage k, and all of thenodes in the same stage can be processed in parallel and independently,may operate on a dedicated processor or subprocess on a single processorfor many nodes. As shown in FIG. 9, for a trellis node with aconstellation symbol v_(k)(q) (i.e., for the constellation symbol q instage k), the path extension procedure first retrieves the Q×L outgoingpath metrics computed in the path reduction step (at stage k), and thenan extension process (Ext. Process) in stage k−1 selects the best Loutgoing paths (e.g., with minimal Euclidean distance to the next node)from these Q×L candidates. Next, each of these number L surviving pathsis fully extended for the next stage of the trellis (stage k−2). Amongthese Q×L extended paths, only the best number L paths are retained(e.g., the ones with the lowest accumulated Euclidean distance d(s)).This process repeats until the trellis has been completely traversed.

FIG. 9 shows a path extension procedure for one trellis node at severalstages in the trellis. In fact, all the nodes in stage k are extended asnecessary so that each node can find the number L shortest paths throughthe trellis. Generally as shown in FIG. 9, to detect a symbol associatedwith antenna k, the entire search process can be expressed as M−k stagesof path reductions followed by k stages of path extensions. In otherwords, the path reduction procedure is first performed until stage k ofthe trellis and next the path extension procedure is performed until theend of the trellis (stage 0).

Turning now to FIGS. 10A and 10B, illustrated are diagrams of anembodiment of a trellis following a path reduction procedure constructedaccording to the principles of the present invention. FIG. 10Aillustrates the trellis following two stages of path reduction. The pathreduction procedure is directed to a node v₂(1) (i.e., for the nodelabeled 1 in stage 2), wherein the number L=2 shortest paths are foundfor this node). Again, the stages of the trellis are labeled stage 0, .. . , stage 3, and the nodes are shown as numbered circles correspondingto constellation symbols. Each node has a number L incoming paths, andthe objective is to provide the number L full paths through each nodebecause the previous stage was pruned to the number L paths.

After the path extension procedure, every node v_(k)(q) has successfullyfound the number L shortest paths or the number L minimum Euclideandistances denoted as d_(k) ^((l))(q), 1=0, 1, . . . , L−1; q=0, 1, . . ., Q−1. The LLR for data bit x_(k,b) transmitted by antenna k is thenapproximated using the following n-Term Log-MAP procedure of equation(5).

$\begin{matrix}{{{LLR}\left( x_{k,b} \right)} \approx {{\log {\sum\limits_{{{({q,l})}:x_{k,b}} = 0}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{d_{k}^{(l)}(q)}} \right)}}} - {\log {\sum\limits_{{{({q,l})}:x_{k,b}} = 1}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{d_{k}^{(l)}(q)}} \right)}}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

In equation (5) above, two log-sums of the number n=Q×L/2 exponentialterms are computed. The two-term log-sum can be advantageously computedusing the Jacobean procedure as follows:

log Σ(exp(a)+exp(b))=max(a,b)+log(1+exp(|a−b|)≡max*(a,b),

wherein log(1+exp(|a−b|)) can be quickly approximated by using aone-dimensional look-up table accessed by the parameter |a−b|. Moreover,the n-term log-sum for n=4, 8, 16, etc., can be recursively computedusing the Jacobean procedure. The follow equation shows a recursiveexample to implement a four-term log-sum.

max*(a,b,c,d)=max*(max*(a,b),max*(c,d))

An eight-term sum can be similarly recursively implemented using afour-term sum, etc. Recall that the number of summed terms growsexponentially as powers of two for the size of the constellationalphabet.

To reduce further the complexity of LLR generation in equation (5), thecomputation is separated into two steps. Each stage (column) of thetrellis corresponds to a transmit antenna, and each node in a stage ismapped to a particular constellation point. A symbol reliability metricΓ(q) is first computed for each node q as follows.

$\begin{matrix}{{\Gamma_{k}(q)} = {{\log {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{L - 1}\; {\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{d_{k}^{(l)}(q)}} \right)}}} = {{\max\limits_{l}}^{*}\left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{d_{k}^{(l)}(q)}} \right)}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

Then equation (5) is changed to obtain the simplification provided bythe Jacobean procedure:

${{{LLR}\left( x_{k,b} \right)} \approx {{\log {\sum\limits_{{q:x_{k,b}} = 0}{\exp \left( {\Gamma_{k}(q)} \right)}}} - {\log {\sum\limits_{{q:x_{k,b}} = 1}{\exp \left( {\Gamma_{k}(q)} \right)}}}}} = {{\underset{{q:x_{k,b}} = 0}{\max^{*}}\left( {\Gamma_{k}(q)} \right)} - {\underset{{q:x_{k,b}} = 1}{\max^{*}}\left( {\Gamma_{k}(q)} \right)}}$

An error performance of the n-Term Log-MAP procedure illustratesexemplary advantages associated therewith.

In accordance therewith, FIG. 11 illustrates a graphical representationdemonstrating an exemplary performance and the accompanying advantagesof a trellis-based detection procedure (i.e., a n-Term Log-MAPprocedure) according to the principles of the present invention.Floating-point simulations are performed for a 4×4, 16-QAM(constellation size 16) system, wherein the channel matrices are assumedto have independent random Gaussian distributions and the numbern=(Q×L)/2 (Q is the constellation size and L is the number of survivingpaths at each node). The simulation results are illustrated in FIG. 11with the performance of several MIMO detection procedures including then-Term Log-MAP procedure for several values of the number L that limitsthe number of surviving outgoing paths. A (2304, 1152) (2304 outputbits, 1152 input bits) WiMax low-density parity-check (“LDPC”) code isused as an outer channel code. For comparison, simulation results arealso plotted for the optimal Log-MAP procedure (which exhibits thequality frame error-rate performance, but is not practical), for theMax-Log-MAP procedure based on an exhaustive search, and for theMax-Log-MAP K-best search procedure with K=32. As can be seen in FIG.11, the n-Term Log-MAP procedure with the number L=2 significantlyoutperforms the K-best procedure with K=32. The n-Term Log-MAP procedurewith the number L=3 outperforms the Max-Log-MAP procedure with theexhaustive search criterion. The n-Term Log-MAP procedure with thenumber L=4 and 6 performs very close to the optimal Log-MAP procedure.It can be seen that with a relatively small number L, such as L=6, then-Term Log-MAP procedure can achieve near-optimal detection performance.

Since sorting is often the bottleneck for the K-best procedure, thesorting complexity of the n-Term Log-MAP procedure can be compared withthat of the K-best procedure. The sorting complexity is measured by thenumber of pair-wise comparisons. For the n-Term Log-MAP procedure,constellation size Q concurrent (Q×L, L) sorting is performed at eachtrellis stage, where the notation (A, B) for sorting complexity denotespartial sorting where B minimum values are selected from A candidates.TABLE 1 below summarizes the sorting complexity of the n-Term Log-MAPprocedure and the K-best procedure. As can be seen, the n-Term Log-MAPprocedure not only has significantly lower sorting complexity than thetree-based K-best procedure, but also has much better error performancethan the K-best procedure.

TABLE 1 Sorting Complexity Comparison for 4×4 16-QAM System n-TermLog-MAP K-Best Sorting complexity per (32, 2) = 35 (512, 32) ≈ 2323tree/trellis level/stage 16 parallel sortings 1 global sorting Speedup66 times better — Required signal-to-noise ratio 9.6 dB 9.95 dB for 10⁻³FER (frame error rate)

Turning now to FIG. 12, illustrated is a diagram of an embodiment of apipelined systolic array architecture for a trellis-based detectionprocedure (i.e., a n-Term Log-MAP procedure) according to the principlesof the present invention. In the illustrated embodiment, the number M oftransmit antennas is four. The elements on the main diagonal are pathreduction (“PR”) units, wherein each path reduction unit performs onestage of the path reduction operation. The elements not on the maindiagonal are the path extension (“PE”) units, wherein each pathextension unit does one stage of the path extension operation. Each pathreduction or path extension unit employs parallel node processes thatimplement the path reduction or path extension procedures. The detectionprocedure is fully pipelined so that it can process one MIMO symbol ateach clock cycle, resulting in a very high data throughput. With thisarchitecture, multiple gigabits per second (“Gbps”) detection speed isfeasible in a communication device such as a user equipment powered by asmall battery.

Assuming a system clock of 400 megahertz, TABLE 2 below summarizes thethroughput performance for different MIMO system configurations. Itshould be noted that TABLE 2 shows the maximum throughput this detectionprocedure can support. The n-Term Log-MAP architecture is scalable andcan be tailored for different data-rate applications.

TABLE 2 Throughput Performance of a n-Term Log-MAP Detector forDifferent MIMO Configurations 4×4 MIMO 6×6 MIMO 8×8 MIMO  4-QAM 3.2 Gbps 4.8 Gbps  6.4 Gbps 16-QAM 6.4 Gbps  9.6 Gbps 12.8 Gbps 64-QAM 9.6 Gbps14.4 Gbps 19.2 Gbps

Turning now to FIG. 13, illustrated is a flowchart of an embodiment of atrellis-based detection procedure according to the principles of thepresent invention. A transmitted signal s formed from a plurality ofsymbols is presumed to be transmitted by M transmit antennas by a remotetransmitting station. Each symbol in the transmitted signal s has aconstellation size Q that is preferably the same for all the symbols.

The detection procedure begins in a step or module 1305. In a step ormodule 1310, the transmitted signal s is received by a communicationdevice with N receive antennas over a communication channel that isdescribed by an M-by-N channel matrix H. In a step or module 1315, atrellis is formed of M columns representing the M transmit antennas andQ rows representing values of the plurality of symbols, with nodes atthe intersections of the columns and rows of the trellis. In a step ormodule 1320, a path reduction procedure is used to limit the number ofmost likely paths of the trellis and a path extension procedure is usedto extend uncompleted paths of the trellis. In a step or module 1325, anumber n of exponential terms is selected, the number n being a functionof a number L of most likely paths of the trellis extending from eachnode and of the constellation size Q. The number L of the most likelypaths is preferably less than or equal to the constellation size Q. Thenumber n of exponential terms is preferably equal to (Q×L)/2. In a stepor module 1330, a log-likelihood ratio is formed at the nodes of thetrellis as a log-sum of a number n of exponential terms corresponding toa hypothesized transmitted bit value of 0 or 1 of the plurality ofsymbols. The log-sum of the number n of exponential terms, whichapproximates a Log-Maximum A Posteriori Probability (“Log-MAP”)procedure, is preferably computed recursively using a Jacobeanprocedure. The number n of exponential terms is limited by a function ofa number L of most likely paths of the trellis extending from each thenode and the constellation size Q. In a step or module 1335, pathweights d(s) are formed as a sum of edge weights e(s) along paths of thetrellis as Euclidean distances dependent on the transmitted signal. Thepath weights d(s) are formed employing a unitary-upper triangulardecomposition (QR decomposition) of the channel matrix H. In a step ormodule 1340, a list is formed at each node of the trellis with the listsize limited to the number L of the most likely paths of the trellisextending from each node. In a step or module 1345, mostly likelysymbols representing the transmitted signal are selected from the listsof the most likely of the paths. The process ends in a step or module1350.

Thus, an n-Term Log-MAP procedure can be advantageously constructed withbeneficial error performance compared to prior-art approximations of anoptimal log-MAP detection procedure. The detection procedure asdescribed herein employs a path-pruning operation in a MIMO trelliswherein a predefined number of candidates are retained at each trellisnode, a path extension operation wherein the trellis is extended to fillin the missing paths, and multiple exponential terms are used to computethe log-sum for LLR generation.

The advantageous error performance of the n-Term Log-MAP procedure canbe achieved with a small list size number L of most likely paths throughthe trellis. Compared to the optimal log-MAP detection procedure, then-Term Log-MAP procedure with L≧4 shows only very small performancedegradation (<0.2 dB). Compared to the max-log-MAP procedure with anexhaustive search criterion, the n-Term Log-MAP procedure with L≧3 showsbetter error performance. Compared to the K-best procedure with K=32,the n-Term Log-MAP procedure shows a significant performance gain withL≧2 (>0.4 dB). Almost all the current solutions such as sphere detectionand K-best detection are based on a max-log-MAP approximation, whichlimits the error performance. Thus, the n-Term Log-MAP procedureexhibits a significant performance advantage over the current solutions.

For instance, the n-Term log-MAP procedure has low complexity and lowlatency. A very low sorting operation is required, which leads tohigh-speed detection. The sorting cost of this solution is an order ofmagnitude lower than that of the conventional K-best procedure. Then-Term Log-MAP procedure provides accurate LLR generation. Multipleexponential terms are used in the log-sum computation to improve the LLRgeneration.

The n-Term Log-MAP procedure enables a high-speed very large scaleintegration (“VLSI”) implementation. This characteristic is verysuitable for high-speed VLSI implementation. All the vertical trellisnodes can be processed in parallel. The trellis node processes indifferent trellis stages can be fully pipelined meaning that differentprocesses within a processor or multiple processors can perform theintended task at each stage. The pipelined systolic array architectureas described herein can support multiple Gbps detection speeds. Thethroughput performance is an order of magnitude higher than theconventional K-best or sphere detection procedures.

The n-Term Log-MAP procedure is scalable for antenna number andmodulation complexity. The systolic array architecture (which iscomposed of matrix-like rows of data processing units called cells) canbe scaled for these parameters. The n-Term Log-MAP procedure can beapplied to a base station, user equipment or any communication device ofa communication system. For instance, in the context of an uplinkcommunication channel, the detection procedure as described herein maybe embodied in a processor of base station in uplink multi-userdetection scenarios wherein multiple user equipment with a small numberof antennas try to use the same channel for sending data to the basestation. In a downlink channel with MIMO reception capability at a userequipment with multiple antennas, which have been discussed for 3GPP LTEand the IMT-Advanced standard, the detection procedure as describedherein can be embodied in a processor of the user equipment forreceiving data in a transmitted signal from a base station.

Thus, an apparatus, method and system for trellis-based detection in acommunication system have been introduced herein. In one embodiment, anapparatus includes a processor and memory including computer programcode. The memory and the computer program code are configured to, withthe processor, cause the apparatus to construct a trellis representing atransmitted signal formed from a plurality of symbols transmitted by anumber M of transmit antennas, wherein each symbol has a constellationsize Q. The trellis is formed of columns representing the number M oftransmit antennas and rows representing values of the plurality ofsymbols with nodes at intersections thereof. The memory and the computerprogram code are further configured to, with the processor, cause theapparatus to form a log likelihood ratio at the nodes of the trellis asa log-sum of a number n of exponential terms corresponding to ahypothesized transmitted bit value of 0 or 1 of the plurality ofsymbols. The number n of exponential terms are limited by a function ofa number L of most likely paths of the trellis extending from each nodeof the trellis and the constellation size Q. The memory and the computerprogram code are further configured to, with the processor, cause theapparatus to form a list at each node of the trellis of a size limitedto the number L of the most likely paths of the trellis extending fromeach node of the trellis and select a mostly likely symbol representingat least a portion of the transmitted signal from the lists of the mostlikely paths of the trellis.

In a related embodiment, the memory and the computer program code arefurther configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to formpath weights d(s) as a sum of edge weights e(s) along paths of thetrellis as Euclidean distances dependent on the transmitted signal. Inaccordance therewith, the transmitted signal is received by a number Nof receive antennas over a communication channel as described by a M×Nchannel matrix H, wherein the path weights d(s) are formed employing aunitary-upper triangular (QR) decomposition of the channel matrix H.Additionally, the number n of exponential terms is equal toconstellation size Q times the number L of the most likely paths of thetrellis divided by two. The number L of the most likely paths of thetrellis may also be less than or equal to the constellation size Q.

In another related embodiment, the memory and the computer program codeare further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus toemploy a path reduction procedure to limit the most likely pathsextending from the each node of the trellis or a path extensionprocedure to extend uncompleted paths of the trellis. Additionally, thelog-sum of the number n of exponential terms is computed recursivelyusing a Jacobean procedure. The log-sum of the number n of exponentialterms may approximate a log-maximum a posteriori probability (“Log-MAP”)procedure. Although the apparatus, method and system described hereinhave been described with respect to cellular-based communicationsystems, the apparatus and method are equally applicable to other typesof communication systems such as a WiMax® communication system.

Program or code segments making up the various embodiments of thepresent invention may be stored in a computer readable medium ortransmitted by a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, or asignal modulated by a carrier, over a transmission medium. For instance,a computer program product including a program code stored in a computerreadable medium may form various embodiments of the present invention.The “computer readable medium” may include any medium that can store ortransfer information. Examples of the computer readable medium includean electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a read only memory(“ROM”), a flash memory, an erasable ROM (“EROM”), a floppy diskette, acompact disk (“CD”)-ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, a fiber opticmedium, a radio frequency (“RF”) link, and the like. The computer datasignal may include any signal that can propagate over a transmissionmedium such as electronic communication network communication channels,optical fibers, air, electromagnetic links, RF links, and the like. Thecode segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as theInternet, Intranet, and the like.

As described above, the exemplary embodiment provides both a method andcorresponding apparatus consisting of various modules providingfunctionality for performing the steps of the method. The modules may beimplemented as hardware (embodied in one or more chips including anintegrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit),or may be implemented as software or firmware for execution by acomputer processor. In particular, in the case of firmware or software,the exemplary embodiment can be provided as a computer program productincluding a computer readable storage structure embodying computerprogram code (i.e., software or firmware) thereon for execution by thecomputer processor.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. For example,many of the features and functions discussed above can be implemented insoftware, hardware, or firmware, or a combination thereof. Also, many ofthe features, functions steps of operating the same may be reordered,omitted, added, etc., and still fall within the broad scope of thepresent invention.

Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine,manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps describedin the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps,presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantiallythe same function or achieve substantially the same result as thecorresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according tothe present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended toinclude within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.

1. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; and memory including computerprogram code, said memory and said computer program code configured to,with said processor, cause said apparatus to perform at least thefollowing: construct a trellis representing a transmitted signal formedfrom a plurality of symbols transmitted by a number of transmitantennas, each symbol having a constellation size, said trellis beingformed of columns representing said number of transmit antennas and rowsrepresenting values of said plurality of symbols with nodes atintersections thereof; form a log likelihood ratio at said nodes of saidtrellis as a log-sum of a number of exponential terms corresponding to ahypothesized transmitted bit value of 0 or 1 of said plurality ofsymbols, said number of exponential terms being limited by a function ofa number of most likely paths of said trellis extending from each nodeof said trellis and said constellation size; and form a list at eachnode of said trellis of a size limited to said number of said mostlikely paths of said trellis extending from each node of said trellis.2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said memory and saidcomputer program code are further configured to, with said processor,cause said apparatus to select a mostly likely symbol representing atleast a portion of said transmitted signal from said lists of said mostlikely paths of said trellis.
 3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1wherein said memory and said computer program code are furtherconfigured to, with said processor, cause said apparatus to form pathweights as a sum of edge weights along paths of said trellis asEuclidean distances dependent on said transmitted signal.
 4. Theapparatus as recited in claim 3 wherein said transmitted signal isreceived by a number of receive antennas over a communication channel asdescribed by a channel matrix, wherein said path weights are formedemploying a unitary-upper triangular decomposition of said channelmatrix.
 5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said number ofexponential terms is equal to constellation size times said number ofsaid most likely paths of said trellis divided by two.
 6. The apparatusas recited in claim 1 wherein said number of said most likely paths ofsaid trellis is less than or equal to said constellation size.
 7. Theapparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said memory and said computerprogram code are further configured to, with said processor, cause saidapparatus to employ a path reduction procedure to limit said most likelypaths extending from said each node of said trellis.
 8. The apparatus asrecited in claim 1 wherein said memory and said computer program codeare further configured to, with said processor, cause said apparatus toemploy a path extension procedure to extend uncompleted paths of saidtrellis.
 9. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said log-sum ofsaid number of exponential terms is computed recursively using aJacobean procedure.
 10. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein saidlog-sum of said number of exponential terms approximates a log-maximum aposteriori probability (Log-MAP) procedure.
 11. A computer programproduct comprising a program code stored in a computer readable mediumconfigured to: construct a trellis representing a transmitted signalformed from a plurality of symbols transmitted by a number of transmitantennas, each symbol having a constellation size, said trellis beingformed of columns representing said number of transmit antennas and rowsrepresenting values of said plurality of symbols with nodes atintersections thereof; form a log likelihood ratio at said nodes of saidtrellis as a log-sum of a number of exponential terms corresponding to ahypothesized transmitted bit value of 0 or 1 of said plurality ofsymbols, said number of exponential terms being limited by a function ofa number of most likely paths of said trellis extending from each nodeof said trellis and said constellation size; and form a list at eachnode of said trellis of a size limited to said number of said mostlikely paths of said trellis extending from each node of said trellis.12. The computer program product as recited in claim 11 wherein saidprogram code stored in said computer readable medium is configured toselect a mostly likely symbol representing at least a portion of saidtransmitted signal from said lists of said most likely paths of saidtrellis.
 13. A method, comprising: constructing a trellis representing atransmitted signal formed from a plurality of symbols transmitted by anumber of transmit antennas, each symbol having a constellation size,said trellis being formed of columns representing said number oftransmit antennas and rows representing values of said plurality ofsymbols with nodes at intersections thereof; forming a log likelihoodratio at said nodes of said trellis as a log-sum of a number ofexponential terms corresponding to a hypothesized transmitted bit valueof 0 or 1 of said plurality of symbols, said number of exponential termsbeing limited by a function of a number of most likely paths of saidtrellis extending from each node of said trellis and said constellationsize; and forming a list at each node of said trellis of a size limitedto said number of said most likely paths of said trellis extending fromeach node of said trellis.
 14. The method as recited in claim 13 furthercomprising selecting a mostly likely symbol representing at least aportion of said transmitted signal from said lists of said most likelypaths of said trellis.
 15. The method as recited in claim 13 furtherincluding forming path weights as a sum of edge weights along paths ofsaid trellis as Euclidean distances dependent on said transmittedsignal.
 16. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein said transmittedsignal is received by a number of receive antennas over a communicationchannel as described by a channel matrix, wherein said path weights areformed employing a unitary-upper triangular decomposition of saidchannel matrix.
 17. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein saidnumber of exponential terms is equal to constellation size times saidnumber of said most likely paths of said trellis divided by two.
 18. Themethod as recited in claim 13 wherein said number of said most likelypaths of said trellis is less than or equal to said constellation size.19. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising employing apath reduction procedure to limit said most likely paths extending fromsaid each node of said trellis.
 20. The method as recited in claim 13further comprising employing a path extension procedure to extenduncompleted paths of said trellis.